Clash of the Titans
by The Maverick Jester
Summary: Just a small one-chapter story about Cloud's thoughts and experiences leading up to his final confrontation with his own Evil. My first story here, please review.


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Clash of the Titans

This is just a short one-shot I'm doing to see if people like my writing. Enjoy!

Also, things in all italics (likes, quotations AND italics) are flashbacks, and regular italics are thoughts.

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Sigh…. Why am I always drawn here?

Cloud was wandering through the massive coliseum, as he seemed to love to do when he was bored. Or rather, when he wasn't doing some random odd job now that he was an actual mercenary. It was raining, oddly, but his mind dwelled on events and people past, so he didn't really notice.

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Why did you curse me to this, Sephiroth?

What did I do to deserve this?

Any of this?

He stared at the massive sword in his hand, his mind speeding from thought to thought, carrying to the events of how he got this heirloom of sorts… It was odd, Zack had to train for years before he could even lift the mighty blade, and yet, Cloud could lift it like it weighted next to nothing. Perhaps it was made for him, this sword, like the Masamune was 'made' for Sephiroth. Simply another raft in the stream of time, flowing it's course until it reached it's destination, which seemed to be that dreadful day that started _everything…._

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~*~ Several years ago…. ~*~

"Cloud… Take it…"

"But…"

"Take it.."

"But.. Zack… I can't take your sword."

"Take it."

"I can't…"

"Take it! What're you still standing here for? Go get Sephiroth! I won't live much longer! Just get him and get everyone to safety!"

"…..I can't…."

"Yes you can! Don't think about it, just do it!"

"…."

Zack….

Cloud stared at the sword, and couldn't stop thinking about his fellow SOLDIER in arms… Killed, just like everyone else, by Sephiroth…

But then, it wasn't really his fault… Was it?

Wasn't Sephiroth just a puppet?

A monster, created by madmen?

……..Did it matter?………

None of that seemed to change Cloud's feelings. Sephiroth destroyed _everything_ that he had ever held dear…

His home…

Zack…

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Aeris….

He could still remember… That day… Where it seemed that his life had ended…

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"All right Barret, do what you want… I'm heading to the temple…"

"Aeris? Aeris? Are you here?"

Then, he saw it… Aeris slipped off of Sephiroth's blade, her blood pooling….

"….Aeris…."

Cloud rushed up the steps, just as Sephiroth disappeared… That didn't matter, though.

"Aeris… Aeris, speak to me….

Aeris?

Aeris?

AERIS!"

AERIS!!!!

Cloud awoke to fins himself still in the coliseum, his sword on the ground next to him, staring at his clawed hand…

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Sephiroth…

Somehow that madman had survived the Meteor incident… And in doing so, condemned Cloud to wandering the worlds, searching for that one thing we all desire to fill the void of life….

Purpose…

And in Cloud's case… That purpose was Aeris.

He wandered and wandered, until he came upon evil Itself.

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Hades…..

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"I can give you what you've been looking for, Strife… I can give you purpose… I can give you the means to find your lost love….

I can help you find Aeris….

And all I need is something that should be but a pittance for you to pay….

Your soul….."

Hades had exchanged to Cloud the means with which to supposedly find his lost love, and in exchange had given up his existence to serve the demented deity. He became more like Sephiroth then ever before…

Becoming….

A One Winged Devil, you could say….

At that moment, in the coliseum, lightning struck the ground not far from where Cloud stood, wandering the past…

From the blast of electricity stood, what was, to Cloud, the embodiment of all the negativity that was found in this thing we call life.

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Sephiroth….

Cloud looked up, and grabbed his sword. He stood, and stared down the being that had ruined his life before it even really began. Another bolt of lightning struck, not at Cloud, but rather from Cloud, from his back sprouting a massive black leathery wing. What earned him his title of One Winged Devil….

Sephiroth smirked, his own black angel wing forming. Both titans seemed to be unaffected by the rain and thunder, standing for what seemed like hours, just staring at each other.

Suddenly, both were instanteously rushing torwards each other, swords drawn, eyes flaming.

And so it begun….

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And so it begun….


End file.
